"Poor devil!" exclaimed Brissole, shrugging his shoulders; then, turning abruptly towards the other, he said, "And what is thy luck? for, so far as externals go, thou seemest to have done better."

"Ay, Jerome," chimed in Chopard, "tell us, how hast thou fared?--thou wert ever a fortunate fellow."

"Pretty well," said he, laughing. "I've just come from St.

Cloud--they've made me King of Westphalia!"

"The devil they have!" exclaimed Chopard; "and dost know, _par hazard_, where thy kingdom lies on the map?"

"Why should he torment himself about that?" said Brissole. "It's enough to know they have capital hams there."

"What if we sup together," said Jerome, "and taste one? I am most anxious to baptize my new Royalty in a gla.s.s of wine. Here we are in the Rue Taibout--this is Villaret's. Come in, gentlemen--I'm the host. Make your minds easy about the future: you, Brissole, I appoint to the office of my Private Secretary. Chopard, you shall be _Maitre de Chapelle_."

"Agreed," cried the others gaily; and with a hearty shake of hands was the contract ratified.

Supper was quickly prepared, and, in its splendour and profusion, p.r.o.nounced, by both the guests, worthy of a king. Villaret could do these things handsomely, and as he was told expense was of no consequence, the entertainment was really magnificent. Nor was the spirit of the guests inferior to the feast. They were brilliant in wit, and overflowing in candour; concealing nothing of their past lives that would amuse or interest, each vied with the other in good stories and ludicrous adventures--all their bygone vicissitudes so pleasantly contrasting with the brilliant future they now saw opening before them.

They drank long life and reign to the King of Westphalia in b.u.mpers of foaming champagne.

The pleasant hours flew rapidly past--bright visions of the time to come lending their charm to the happiness, and making their enjoyment seem but the forerunner of many days and nights of festive delight. At last came day-break, and, even by the flickering of reason left, they saw it was time to separate.

"Bring the bill," said Jerome to the exhausted-looking waiter, who speedily appeared with a small slip of paper ominously marked "eight hundred francs."

"_Diable!_" exclaimed Jerome; "that is smart, and I have no money about me. Come, Brissole, this falls among your duties--pay the fellow."

"_Parbleu_, then--it comes somewhat too soon. I am not yet installed, and have not got the key of our treasury."

"No matter--pay it out of thine own funds."

"But I have none--save this;" and he produced two francs, and some sous in copper.

"Well, then, Chopard must do it."

"I have not as much as himself," said Chopard.

"Send the landlord here," said Jerome; but indeed the command was unnecessary, as that functionary had been an anxious listener at the door to the very singular debate.

"We have forgotten our purses, Villaret," said Jerome, in the easy tone his last ten hours of royalty suggested; "but we will send your money when we reach home."

"I have no doubt of it, gentlemen," said the host, obsequiously; "but it would please me still better to receive it now--particularly as I have not the honour of knowing the distinguished company."

"The distinguished company is perfectly satisfied to know you: the _cuisine_ was excellent," hiccupped Brissole.

"And the wine unexceptionable."

"The champagne might have been a little more _frappe_," said Brissole; "the only improvement I could suggest."

"Perhaps there was a _nuance_, only a _nuance_, too much citron in the _rognons a la broche_, but the _filets de sole_ were perfect."

"If I had the happiness of knowing '_Messieurs_,'" said Villaret, "I should hope, that at another time I might be more fortunate in pleasing them."

"Nothing easier," said Chopard. "I am _Maitre de Chapelle_ to the King of Westphalia."

Villaret bowed low.

"And I am the Private Secretary and Privy Purse of his majesty."

Villaret bowed again--a slight smile of very peculiar omen flitting across his cunning features, while, turning hastily, he whispered a word in the ear of the waiter. "And this gentleman here?" said he, looking at Jerome, who, with his legs resting on a chair, was coolly awaiting the termination of the explanation. "And this gentleman, if I might make so bold, what office does he hold in his Majesty's service?"

"I am the King of Westphalia!" said Jerome.

"Just as I suspected. Francois," said the landlord insolently, "go fetch the gendarmes."

"No, no, _parbleu!_" said Jerome, springing up in alarm; "no gendarmes, no police. Here, take my watch--that is surely worth more than your bill? When I reach home I'll send the money."

The landlord, more than ever convinced that his suspicions were well grounded, took the watch, which was a very handsome one, and suffered them to depart in peace.

They had not been gone many minutes when, on examining the watch, the landlord perceived that it bore the emblematic "N" of the Emperor within the case, and at once suspecting that it had been stolen from some member of the imperial household, he hurried off in terror to communicate his fears to the commissary of police. This functionary no sooner saw it that he hastened to Fouche, the minister, who, making himself acquainted with the whole details, immediately hurried off to the Tuileries and laid it all before the Emperor. The watch had been a present from Napoleon to Jerome; but this was but a small part of the cause of indignation. The derogation from dignity, the sacrifice of the regard due to his station, were crimes of a very different order; and, summoned to the imperial presence, the new-made king was made to hear, in terms of reproachful sarcasm, a lesson in his craft that few could impart with such cutting severity.

As for the _Maitre de Chapelle_ and the Secretary, an agent of the police waited on each before they were well awake, with strict injunctions to them to maintain a perfect secrecy on the whole affair; and while guaranteeing them an annual pension in their new offices, a.s.suring them that the slightest indiscretion as to the mystery would involve their ruin and their exile from France for ever.

It was years before the landlord learned the real secret of the adventure, and, in commemoration of it, called his house "Le Cafe du Roi," a circ.u.mstance which the Government never noticed, for the campaign of Russia and the events of 1812-13 left little time to attend to matters of this calibre.

The Cafe du Roi is now a shop where artificial flowers are sold; as nearly like nature perhaps, or more so, than poor Jerome's royalty resembled the real article.

CHAPTER VII.

Baden-Baden. It is like a dream to me now to think of that long, dusty road from Paris, with its rattling pavement, its noisy postilions, shouting ostlers, bowing landlords, dirty waiters, garlic diet, and hard beds; and here I sit by my open window, with a bright river beneath my feet, the song of birds on every side, a richly wooded mountain in front, and at the foot a winding road, which ever and anon gives glimpses of some pa.s.sing equipage, bright in all the b.u.t.terfly glitter of female dress, or, mayhap, resounding with merry laughter and sweet-voiced mirth. How brilliant is every thing!--the cloudless sky, the sparkling water, the emerald gra.s.s, the foliage in every tint of beauty, the orange-trees and the cactus along the terraces, where lounging parties come and go; and then the measured step of princely equipages, in all the panoply of tasteful wealth! Truly, Vice wears its holiday suit in Baden, and the fairness of this lovely valley seems to throw a softened light over a scene where, as in a sea, the stormy waves of every bad pa.s.sion are warring.

When, in all the buoyant glow of youth and health, I remembered feeling shocked, as I strolled through the promenade at Carlsbad, at the sight of so many painful objects of sickness and suffering; the eager, almost agonising, expressions of hoping convalescence; the l.u.s.treless stare of those past hope; the changeful looks of accompanying friends, who seemed to read the fate of some dear one in the compa.s.sionate pity of those who pa.s.sed, were all sights that threw a chill, like death, over the warm current of my blood. Yet never did this feeling convey the same intense horror and disgust that I felt last night as I walked through the Cursaal.

To pa.s.s from the mellow moonlight, dappling the pathway among the trees and kissing the rippling stream, from the calm, mild air of a summer's night, when every leaf lay sleeping and none save the nightingale kept watch, into the glare and glitter of a gilded saloon, is somewhat trying to the jarred nerves of sickness. But what was it to the sight of that dense crowd around the play-table, where avarice, greed of gain, recklessness, and despair are mingled, giving, even to faces of manly vigour and openness, expressions of low cunning and vulgar meaning?

There is a terrible sameness in the gambler's look, a blending of slavish terror with a resolution to brave the worst, almost demoniacal in its fierceness. I knew most of the persons present; I need not say, not personally, but from having seen them before at various other similar places. Many were professed gamblers, men who starved and suffered for the enjoyment of that one pa.s.sion, living on the smallest gain, and never venturing a stake beyond what daily life demanded; haggard, sad, wretched-looking creatures they were, the abject poverty of their dress and appearance vouching that this _metier_ was not a prosperous one. Others farmed out their talents, and played for those who were novices. These men have a singular existence; they exact a mere per-centage on the winning, and are in great request among elderly ladies, whose pa.s.sion for play is modified by the fears of its vicissitudes. Then there were the usual sprinkling of young men, not habitually gamblers, but always glad to have the opportunity of tempting Fortune, with here and there some old votary of the "table" satisfied to witness the changeful temper of the game without risking a stake.

Into many vices men are led by observing the apparent happiness and pleasure of others who indulge in them. Not so with regard to play.

No man ever became a gambler from this delusion, there being no such terrible warning against the pa.s.sion as the very looks of its votaries.

But it is not in such a low _tripot_ of vice I care to linger. It was a ball-night, and I turned with a sense of relief from the aspect of sordid, vulgar iniquity, to gaze on its more polished brother (_quore_, sister?) in the _salle de danse_.

Here there was a large--I might almost call it a brilliant--company a.s.sembled: a less exclusive a.s.semblage cannot be conceived; five francs and clean gloves being the only qualification needed. The guests were as varied, too, in nation as in rank. About equal numbers of German and French, several Russians, and a large proportion of English, with, here and there, a bilious-looking American, or a very dubious Marquis from beyond the Alps. Many of the men I knew to be swindlers and blacklegs of the very lowest stamp; some others I recognised as persons of the highest station in my own country. Of the lady part of the company the disparities were even greater.

There was, it is true, a species of sifting process discernible, by which the various individuals fell among those of their own order; but though this was practicable enough where conversation and grouping were concerned, it was scarcely attainable in other circ.u.mstances, and thus, the Mazurka and the Polka a.s.sembled ingredients that should never have been placed in close propinquity.

The demoralising influence of such _reunions_ upon the daughters of our own land need not be insisted upon. Purity of mind and simplicity of character are no safeguard against the scenes which, in all the propriety of decorum, are ever occurring. And how terribly rapid are the downward steps when the first bloom and blush of modesty have faded! It demands but a very indifferent power of observation to distinguish the English girl for the first time abroad from her who has made repeated visits to foreign watering-places; while even among those who have been habituated to the great world at home, and pa.s.sed the ordeal of London seasons, there is yet much to learn in the way of cool and self-possessed effrontery, from the habits of Baden and its brethren.

I was dreadfully shocked last night by meeting one I had not seen for many years before. How changed from what I knew her once!--what a terrible change! When first I saw her, it was during a visit I made to her mother's house in Wales; her brother was an Oxford friend, and brought me down with him for the shooting season to Merionethshire.

Poor fellow! he died of consumption at two-and-twenty, and left all he possessed--a handsome estate--to his only sister. Hence all her misery!